NEW YORK (AP) — Jalen Brunson doesn't overwhelm anyone athletically like Michael Jordan or LeBron James. He'll never overpower anybody like Shaquille O'Neal.
Brunson doesn't look like someone who would ever dominate an NBA game, which has left countless frustrated opponents wondering why they couldn't stop him from leading the New York Knicks to the top.
“That’s got to be hard, right? When you’re losing to somebody 5-10, 5-11, that’s got to be hard for you,” former Knicks superstar Carmelo Anthony said. “So I love the place that JB is in, because he makes people mad.”
Anthony was laughing, knowing that Brunson isn't quite that small. The Knicks officially list their point guard at 6-foot-2, 208 pounds.
But he's correct about the way Brunson makes opponents feel. Doc Rivers, stressing that he knows Brunson well so could say it with affection, shared what he thought while coaching against him last season in Milwaukee.
“How's this little fat (expletive) kid kicking our ass?” Rivers said.
Players who watched what Brunson did last season while leading the Knicks to their first NBA championship since 1973 clearly admire what the 2018 second-round pick has become. James and Giannis Antetokounmpo were among the superstars praising Brunson when training camps opened.
“It’s honestly really cool and it’s a sign of respect and to hear that from those guys, I really do appreciate it,” Brunson said. “But just like a lot of things, when you hear praise, when you hear negativity, it has to go through one ear and out the other and you’ve got to continue to be the best version of yourself or people are going to pass you. So I really do appreciate it. It shows where I’ve grown, but I’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
Brunson joined a small postseason club that includes greats of the game
Brunson's postseason run took its place among the best in history. He averaged 28.4 points and became the sixth player to lead the postseason in scoring and then be voted NBA Finals MVP, a group that includes Jordan, James and O'Neal.
Once those players finally won titles, it was natural picking them to win again. They were the best athletes on the floor, or in the case of the 7-1, 325-pound O'Neal, the biggest. Brunson beats defenders with skill and not size, relying on footwork, fakes and spins that create angles to get his shot off against taller defenders.
“You look at LeBron, you see that specimen. You look at Michael. You look at Jalen and you’re like, well, can he keep it going?" Rivers said. "He’s not going anywhere. He’s going to be the same guy. He’s going to make the same big shots.”
Brunson's size — or lack thereof — was frequently cited by critics who said the Knicks couldn't win a title with him as their best player. Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon, then working for ESPN, was among those when she said in 2023 that “if your best player is small, you’re not winning.”
Well, they won. Yet with Brunson as their leading man, the Knicks won't have the same aura as Jordan's Bulls or O'Neal's Lakers.
“We respect them, but we don’t fear them," Reggie Miller said, summing up how opponents would view the Knicks. "There’s a difference.”
And which side is the Hall of Famer on?
“I fear Jalen Brunson as a former player,” the longtime Indiana Pacers guard said. “I tell people this all the time: He is one guy in our game, if it’s close, he has such a clutch gene. He plays the game with such a maturity and he can destroy you in a number of ways in terms of scoring the basketball. And he just understands the game and how to win, so from a former player’s standpoint, I fear them.”
Brunson's Knicks relied on team play and not individual talent
Anthony and Miller will be in Madison Square Garden next Tuesday night as part of NBC's coverage team when the Knicks raise their banner before facing Philadelphia in their season opener. Brunson will likely get the loudest cheers and probably chants of “MVP! MVP!” from fans who watched how he made his team the one everybody is looking up at.
On the other sideline will be the 6-9, 250-pound James, who at 41 still has the look of an NBA A-lister. Focus on athleticism, as Rivers said many mistakenly do, and it's easy to miss the beauty of Brunson's game and the impact it's had on a Knicks team that went 16-3 with a record victory margin in the postseason, right up there with anything Jordan's or O'Neal's teams did.
Derek Fisher, who played on the Lakers teams with O'Neal and Kobe Bryant that won three straight NBA titles from 2000-02, said the Knicks won more with their unselfishness and cohesiveness than individual talent, which are “harder things to quantify.”
“So it would kind of make sense that everybody wouldn’t necessarily, specifically fear Jalen Brunson in the same ways as they feared, quote-unquote, Shaq, LeBron, Kobe, Michael, those types of guys,” Fisher said. “But I’m not sure there’s any less of a reason to see them having a chance to come out of the East this year.”
Whatever talent evaluators thought that caused Brunson to slip to the No. 33 pick after winning two national championships and college player of the year at Villanova doesn't matter anymore. The superstars of the sport view Brunson as one of them.
“As far as what anybody says about JB, he is the guy,” Anthony said. “I think going into the season he is the top point guard in the NBA and he’s proven that.”
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Brian Mahoney, The Associated Press